The chic way of going to Darjeeling, is by the "Toy
train" up from the plains. But it's slow and not that
dependable and you will get really dirty and ti will take
hours and hours. It's for the train enthusiasts. The rest of
us go for the trip Ghoom - Darjeeling.

That leaves buses and share taxis. I came on a day when
there was a strike, and I was the only one at Bagdora going
for Darjeeling, so I had to get a jeep all by myself.

Tea plantation on the other side of the valley at
Bothia Busti

There are plenty of hotels in Darjeeling. The fancy one
is the Windamere, once a bachelors club when the tea
business was new and Darjeeling just a little hamlet. It is
very British, and today a place where people from India and
Nepal go on a honeymoon - the wealthy ones, that is.

I went for the Dekeling; it is nice and clean and quite
reasonable prices. It is run by a very friendly Tibetan
family, and there is no mistake: The boss is the lady of the
house. If you can take it, you get a lot of practising - two
ladies living on the top counted 99 steps. I got a room just
under them, a spacious room with a great view. If only the
sky had cleared up, there would have been a superb view of
the Kanchenjunga.

Downstairs is the hotel restaurant Dekevas. It is nothing
special, but a good place to meet fellow western travellers
and students of Buddhism and the Tibetan language - and the
odd Calcuttan family too.

If you stay at the Dekeling, you go just a little down
and to the left to find the General Post Office, and the
Bank of India or ANZ Grindlays if you are in a hurry and
don't mind to get a little less rupees for your money. The
Bank of India is a lot of waiting in line; first get the
form, then fill in the form and all this. Those knowing the
system can get the form by bypassing the line, though. In
this road there also is some antiques stores, and near the
top you will find the Nathmulls Tea
Shop, a great place to order your tea to be sent home. I
get all my tea from this place, ordering by e-mail. Mr.
Sarda will remember what your choice in teas are when you
happen to visit Darjeeling!

If you choose to go to the right when you go out of the
restaurant Dekevas, you will enter The Mall, a lively street
of shops selling almost everything, and at the top is the
Chowrasta and the Windamere.

A very sleepy Calcuttan boy at Dekevas late at
night.

(Click on picture for more Snow Leopards.)

Going more or less straight down from the Hotel Dekeling,
and a little to the right, will lead to the market area and
eventually the bus and share taxis. Going past the taxies
down Hill Cart Road, you will find the Deputy Commissioners
Office, where you apply for the Sikkim Permit. Or rather:
You first go to get the form, then fill it in, go to the
Foreign Registration Office in Laden La Road (just below the
ANZ Barclay office) to get a stamp and be written into some
book, then back down to the Deputy Commissioners Office to
get the final approval (and being entered into still more
books). It is all just a formality, but the process comes
with a IBW (Indian Bureaucrazy Warning) be there fifteen
minutes before opening, be prepared to wait for half an hour
even if you are the first in the line, and don't loose your
temper or show any sign of irritation. If you do that, it is
possible to get the permit in one day!

Further down the Hill Cart Road you can cross over to the
Jahawar Road West. If you go up, you will reach the
Windamere and Chowrasta, if you go down you will find the
Snow Leopard Breeding Centre, a kind of zoo that is well
kept away from the busy Indian life, in a small "jungle".
There are pandas there too. Even further down is the ropeway
to Singtam, a must for those seeking those kinds of thrills
- if it works that day. Singtam used to be a great place to
get robbed, but I think it is a little safer now.

So the Chowrasta is also a good place to start this walk,
just keep left to the Windamere. At the Chowrasta there is a
very good bookstore, and a couple of restaurants have
terraces with a great view to the southeast, high over the
valley. If you take the road going down on the right side of
the Windamere, you will find the Buthia Busti Gompa, or you
can follow the signs to the Tibetan Refugee Self Help
Centre. If you ask, there then is a short-cut to the Bothia
Busti monastery.

The Bothia Busti monastery used to be on the top of the
hill, where the Windamere is today. It is the Dorje Ling
(The place of the thunderbolt - or the monastery of the
Dorje Lama), and is used by the mainly Bothia and Tibetans
living down at Bothia Busti. There is a lot of racist hate
regarding this - the Nepalese Ghurkhas feel that this area
is their property, as it was given to them by the British
Raj, and so they want everybody else thrown out.

"Darjeeling for Ghorkas only"-teacher.

Boys near Botihia Busti, on their way to school

This symbol was often accompanied by racist slogans,
but will also be seen in the Buddhist monasteries in quite
another connection.

One of the ordianry citicens of Darjeeling.

From the Chowrasta it is also a very nice walk to the
Aloobari Gompa, another old monastery where the dark hall is
very good for meditation. There is a burial site there, and
lots and lots of small chortens. Just start by the stables
at Chowrasta, and keep left at any junction where the road
does not lead down in the valley. If you then go on, you
will reach Jorebangla (or Jorebungalow - or possibly some
other way of writing it). It is a great walk along the
hillside, with just the occasional house here and there.
Just past Jorebangla is Ghoom. If you walk a little in the
direction of Tiger Hill, there is the Phin Sotholing Gompa;
new and nothing special, but a very friendly place. Then you
just follow the railroad track to the Ghoom Railway station,
to catch a train or a share jeep or a bus.

If you got the time, there are more monasteries here.
Follow the maroon-robed monks to a large monastery-school,
or take left by the Ghoom Post Office, to find the original
old Ghoom Gompa, with some very interesting statues - the
main one is the Maitreya, blue-eyed,
sitting on a chair.

This monastery can also be reached walking to the left of
the Dekeling, AJC Bose Road. You will pass a hideous
amusement park, and maybe be helped to find the short-cut at
the school just past this establishment.

Actually I am not a very good guide for Darjeeling. I was
not still well after food-poisoning in Dehli, so I just had
some soup or something like that at the Dekevas. The one day
I tried something else, I went to the Park, down the Laden
La Road. It is a nice place to get Indian food in the Indian
manner.

My "Kiwi" friend Dave, who I met in Gangtok, recommenced
to take the Singalila trek. It was included in my plans, but
I just wasn't up to it. Be very careful what you eat at that
track though. He got a very bad stomach illness, in spite of
the correct vaccinations.

Though there are beggars,
they are not anytning like in the big cities.

These kids lived in a small house along the road from
Aloobari to Ghoom.